Confession: I suck at geography
When it comes to geography I only ever did the minimum requirements at school. I never chose it as an elective and can't even remember if/when I may have studied it as a subject on its own. Which means I'm not very good at knowing where places are in our world.
I've always been an avid reader but even reading doesn't help me piece together where each country sits on our planet. Which is probably why I steer clear of books about spies, espionage and wars. The moment characters start hopping from country to country I'm completely lost and overwhelmed. My brain shuts down. The book gets put back on the shelf never to be opened again.
It wasn't until I first travelled to the USA at the age of 21 that I realised geography for me is better experienced in real life. Catching the Greyhound bus up and down the east coast of America meant I got to fully understand where each state sat. When I headed back at the age of 26 with Derek and my parents driving west to east, I again got to live the jigsaw by embedding each piece into my brain forever.
When it comes to some things, if I'm going to learn it, I need to live it.
Don't ask me to explain how one would get from Italy, to Greece, to Spain to France. Never been there, therefore I have no idea of their size or proximity.
As I sit and write this post I stare at the globe on our coffee table and try to absorb some of the information staring back at me. I'm focusing on Poland, Germany, Belarus and the Ukraine and my eyes have glazed over. Belarus? What the hell is Belarus? Never heard of it ...
I would make a great travel agent if I could just send everyone to the USA. But beyond that if you asked me to take you from China to India I'd probably make you circumnavigate the globe to get there (when apparently they're right next door to each other - who knew?)
When my daughter first started talking about possibly accepting a contract to Seoul I was picturing Korea to be an island all on its own split in two (north and south) much like New Zealand. I know Korea is in Asia but only just this minute did I find it way up high near Japan and attached to China. I thought the whole North Korea thing was scary enough when Korea was an island all to itself and north and south were separated, but now that I can see that it is nestled in between Japan and China and actually attached to South Korea I'm not feeling too good about any of it.
So yeah, I suck at geography.
I think I should start doing something about that. Perhaps the only way to fix it is to live it!
I'd better start saving, hey?
Did you do geography at school?
What sort of travel agent would you make?
How do you learn best?
When it comes to geography I only ever did the minimum requirements at school. I never chose it as an elective and can't even remember if/when I may have studied it as a subject on its own. Which means I'm not very good at knowing where places are in our world.
I've always been an avid reader but even reading doesn't help me piece together where each country sits on our planet. Which is probably why I steer clear of books about spies, espionage and wars. The moment characters start hopping from country to country I'm completely lost and overwhelmed. My brain shuts down. The book gets put back on the shelf never to be opened again.
It wasn't until I first travelled to the USA at the age of 21 that I realised geography for me is better experienced in real life. Catching the Greyhound bus up and down the east coast of America meant I got to fully understand where each state sat. When I headed back at the age of 26 with Derek and my parents driving west to east, I again got to live the jigsaw by embedding each piece into my brain forever.
When it comes to some things, if I'm going to learn it, I need to live it.
Don't ask me to explain how one would get from Italy, to Greece, to Spain to France. Never been there, therefore I have no idea of their size or proximity.
As I sit and write this post I stare at the globe on our coffee table and try to absorb some of the information staring back at me. I'm focusing on Poland, Germany, Belarus and the Ukraine and my eyes have glazed over. Belarus? What the hell is Belarus? Never heard of it ...
I would make a great travel agent if I could just send everyone to the USA. But beyond that if you asked me to take you from China to India I'd probably make you circumnavigate the globe to get there (when apparently they're right next door to each other - who knew?)
When my daughter first started talking about possibly accepting a contract to Seoul I was picturing Korea to be an island all on its own split in two (north and south) much like New Zealand. I know Korea is in Asia but only just this minute did I find it way up high near Japan and attached to China. I thought the whole North Korea thing was scary enough when Korea was an island all to itself and north and south were separated, but now that I can see that it is nestled in between Japan and China and actually attached to South Korea I'm not feeling too good about any of it.
So yeah, I suck at geography.
I think I should start doing something about that. Perhaps the only way to fix it is to live it!
I'd better start saving, hey?
Did you do geography at school?
What sort of travel agent would you make?
How do you learn best?
Day 2776 - The post where I confess to knowing very little about geography
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Oleh
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